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The first thing he notices when he wakes up is a weight on his thighs. He opens his eyes slowly and lifts his head up from where it had been resting. His sight is immediately greeted with a familiar tan hoodie.
"You're letting me sleep on you now?" Alex asks lowly, voice gravelly.
The question is met with a smug grin, that endearing small gap in his teeth on display. Today, it seems, Brian has decided to forego putting on his usual ski mask and the hood of his hoodie is down. His hair was a bit longer than he usually kept it, barely even noticeable if Alex didn't already know Brian's preference in haircuts.
"What? Like it hasn't happened before?" Brian responds, voice low and quiet. Like he was sharing a secret that only the two of them could know. There's no need given how empty the abandoned school building was. Brian's hands move, sliding up his shoulders from where they had been resting, cupping the back of Alex's head and neck.
Alex hesitates, his usual sarcasm slow to pool on the tip of his tongue. Looking up at Brian as the other's bare fingers slide over his skin and through his hair. The motions feel so familiar but he can't recall the memories tied to the feeling. Most of his memories were pulled apart by now, fraying at the edges and tangling like static in a TV.
"Do you remember any of it?" Alex asks, breathing shallowly.
Brian is silent, staring Alex down with a calculating expression. Like he's trying to figure out what angle this line of questioning has. They don't talk about before much. Granted, most of their time together in the last several years has been a long game of cat and mouse, with neither one ever being the real winner.
Alex doesn't have an angle. He's not trying to get free right now, even if the way his arms are tied behind his back aches and his ankles are being rubbed raw from being tied tightly against the chair. This is the first time they've been properly alone since before Brian met Tim and Alex started dating Amy. Even that thing watching them constantly seemed to not be looming over them so intensely.
He wonders if that has anything to do with the pills Brian was forcing him to take.
Brian sighs finally and his hands tighten their hold on Alex's head and neck. The grip is tight enough that it hurts, but it causes heat to skip down Alex's spine. "Bits and pieces." Brian admits as he leans in closer. There's only a few inches between their faces, each of their breaths intermingling in the space between. "I remember how much it hurt when you picked Amy."
Alex flinches at that. The words sting more than any hit or cut he's gotten from the other. But he doesn't have any time to respond as Brian leans in close enough for their foreheads to press together.
Brian's hazel eyes are dark in the low lighting of the room as they bore into Alex relentlessly. Pulling back the layers of Alex's skin and seeing the gore beneath. Searching for the deepest, darkest parts of him that no one could ever understand. "We were good friends, weren't we?" He asks. It's softer. A whisper, a hope.
Alex leans his forehead up slightly to press more against Brian's. He could remember bits of their friendship. Moments of them joking around, Brian trying to get him to socialize and not be stuck in his own head, touches that lingered far longer than they were meant to. "Yeah," Alex says before swallowing hard. "But that was never enough. Was it?"
Brian lets out a huff at Alex's words. Partially amused, but mostly tired. "No. No, I guess it wasn't." He agrees. He pulls back slightly to move his forehead away from Alex's. His hands release Alex's head and neck before sliding over his shoulders once again, out and then back in, out to the opposite sides. He leans in to bury his face against the side of Alex's neck as he hugs Alex tightly. His fingers dig into Alex's shoulders with a harsh grip. Trying to hold onto something that's already been lost.
Alex ducks his head down, burying his face against Brian's hair. He breathes in deeply and tries to ingrain Brian's scent into his mind in hopes that this memory won't be ripped out of him.